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1913: First industrial-scale use of the Haber-Bosch process for ammonia manufacture.

http://tinyurl.com/bphhvv

The world population boom is directly attributable to this invention. Without it, the fertilizer for the food they all eat would not exist.

Also, World War I, the most important event of modern times, was only made possible because of the Haber-Bosch process. Germany would have run out of ammunition in a few months without the nitrates produced by the H-B process. The British blockade kept them from getting naturally occurring nitrates.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve was created, the 16th Amendment to the US constitution was passed (income tax) and two months later the 17th Amendment whereby Senators were elected by popular vote. Before that they had been elected by state legislatures, and had had the job of making sure that the federal power did not encroach the boundaries of the Constitution.